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2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 NOVEMBER 2020 New standards and old values Editorial OPPOSITION leader Bernard Grech was quick in the week to address his party's loose ends: one concerning the acceptance of gifts by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, the other his MP Edwin Vas- sallo's denigration of an LGBTQI strategy from the European Commission to link EU funds to the respect of equality and other gay rights. Grech seems to have set the standard so far in his own party. MPs have to practice what they preach, and it is clear that Jason Azzopardi broke the Code of Ethics for MPs by soliciting a favour and then accept- ing a gift from none other than the business group which had a direct interest in the Electrogas power plant, a project so denigrated by the Opposition at the time. That gift, a hotel stay at the Hilton in Tel Aviv, took place right at the time when the PN, led then by Simon Busuttil, was waging its own political theatrics against the DB Group over the unacceptable transfer of public land for the development of a hotel; but as it turns out, while receiving donations from that business group for wages of its own party staff. Of course, what's good for the goose is rightly good for the gander. That saying goes for Labour too: will its own MPs and ministers come clean on the gifts they have received but which have gone undeclared? Now that the bar has been set high, the Azzopardi gift cannot be used as some measure of false equivalence in order to nullify the egre- gious disregard of ethics and standards in politics. Secondly, Grech this week also acted quickly to disassociate the party from claims by the conserva- tive MP Edwin Vassallo to lambaste an EC equality strategy led by Helena Dalli as "Marxist" and "total- itarian". So overused have these words become by the 'alt-right' fringes of the Maltese political land- scape, that they have lost their value entirely. All the privileged critics in Malta – people like former conservative minister and European Commissioner Tonio Borg, religious leaders, and MPs like Edwin Vassallo – are intent on denigrating anything that demands equal treatment of people, and equal ac- cess to goods and services, as 'Marxist' (confusingly so, since Marx's friend Friedrich Engels saw equal- ity as an antiquated Utopian concept that actually had little place in socialist society...). Broad-church parties cannot exclude people on the basis of discriminatory politics; they need to be inclusive of any group whose aspirations include personal advancement and the common good, and which do not harm the pursuit of hap- piness by other groups. If Grech has understood this concept, he can start chipping away at the old stubborn edifice of Nationalist entitlement and privilege that has weakened the PN. But it will take bold actions to start repositioning the party as being capable of convincing policy po- sitions, that embrace modernity, diversity, freedom of thought, and a willingness to place the people above the market and its masters. Pierre Grech Marguerat When Malta became an EU member in 2004, its sovereignty became effectively pooled with that of the European Union and its member states, and with that, a shared system of values rooted in international law and human rights. One of these major changes had been Malta's adherence to international rules on asylum and refugees, which meant it could no longer chose not to ratify the full obligations of the Geneva Convention and become responsible for the reception and processing of asylum claims. Malta's entry into the EU coincided with a jumble of laws which punished border nations and which, 16 years later, is still the subject of wide debate inside the European Parliament. Be that as it may, the mass arrival of mixed flows of asylum seekers – some were refugees forced to make an illegal crossing without identity documentation, others were fleeing scenes of conflict or looking for better life opportunities in the rich EU – altered the Maltese political agenda. Migration, asylum seekers and labour migrants, racism and xenophobia, and also the general conversation on human rights, was thrown into a bitter, divisive debate. The Nationalist adminis- tration, like governments that came after it, wanted the problem gone, adopting a fatal pushback in 2002 that is widely documented by Amnesty; and an unforgiving detention policy. The new reality brought into political parlance the Maltese far-right, a collection of individ- uals who openly dehumanise foreign guests, migrant workers, rail against gender equality, and entertain spurious alt-right conspiracies and its lazy tropes. One of the protagonists of this debate at the time was the gentle Jesuit priest, Pierre Grech Marguerat. He was, at that point, tasked with the difficult job of explaining the value of international humanitarian law and the reality of migrations from the African conti- nent to Europe. For being a Catholic priest, he ironi- cally faced a sort of double barrier, for audiences who were wilfully xenophobic seemed to think the Church was foisting an undesirable agenda onto them. As the far-right attempted to silence these voices, unknown perpetrators – some believed to have been close to the forces of law and order at the time – set on fire the cars belonging to Jesuit priests like Grech Marguerat, and lawyer Katrine Camilleri, of the Jesuit Refugee Service. Other people who suffered arson attacks on their front doors were MaltaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan and the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. These were difficult times for humanitarian activists and voices. When shorn of a strong political voice, of a government that embraces humanitarian values, activists are left alone to fend off dangerous critics and right-wing extremists who are never inure to use lies and deceit for political gain. Fr Pierre Grech Marguerat was a gentle warrior whose life was dedicated to the universal value of hu- man rights. We hope the memory of his actions live long after his untimely departure and can serve to in- spire those whose aspiration in life is to see that people can pursue their happiness, without fear. 14 November, 2010 MEP tells Aluminia: 'At a loss at why you turned down Air Malta capital injection' LOUIS Grech, who served as Air Malta chair- man under both Labour and PN administra- tions between 1996 and 2004, has called into question the European Commission's de- cision for having turned down the Maltese governments proposed capital injection to enable to airline to rebuild its capital re- source. "I am at a loss as to why the Commission turned down the proposed EU approval of a capital injection… the ultimate aim was to return the airline to profitability and enable it to operate competitively in the market without any State support, as has been in the case so far," Grech told the EU Com- mission Vice-President Joaquin Almumia in a letter. In the correspondence, he asks Almumia for his 'consideration' of an aid package that is in full respect of EU State Aid rules and that "ensures vital support" for the airline. He blamed "hard times as a result of a new, harshly competitive environment" as the reason for Air Malta's current crisis, and explained that while such circum- stances have broken 'many an airline', Air Malta has used its internal resources – not taxpayers' money or subsidies – as has been the case with a number of EU carriers. According to Grech, the main problems affecting Air Malta's current performance are tied to hiked fuel prices, fluctuating exchange rates, the economic recession and cutthroat competition. Grech stressed that Air Malta has not been the recipient of any State Aid, not only since EU membership but even before. "On the contrary, it has been Air Mal- ta which has subsidized, tourism and air transport development through its market- ing activities, with an annual expenditure of around €25 million. "It is rather ironic that it is exactly this development which has permitted low-cost airlines to find fertile ground for their own forays into the market," Grech said. ... Quote of the Week "I think that when you speak about someone who was murdered you need to qualify things. The murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia is a murder of a person. It is a macabre murder. In her eyes I was dirt, ignorant, a drug addict." Former minister Chris Cardona testifying in the public inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia MaltaToday 10 years ago